【世界杯报道专帖】收集相关外媒网站及文章

rhapsody · 发表于 2010-5-23 23:06

四年一届的世界杯将于6月11日揭幕，本帖用于报道世界杯的相关外媒网站（见1楼）及文章（见2楼及其后）。

有兴趣翻译的同学请将译文发到体育版（世界杯期间将作为专版）：http://bbs.m4.cn/forum-174-1.html

P.S. 提供翻译的同学将有金条奖励~O(∩_∩)O~

rhapsody · 发表于 2010-6-19 21:43

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/ ... -article468707.html

By Steve Stammers

Published 07:03 16/06/10

Admittedly, there is no sizeable South African enclave where I live so I am spared the sound of the controversial Vuvuzela horn before, during or after Brentwood Town play in the First Division of the Ryman League.

But this is Essex, not Eastern Province. Romford is just down the road, Rustenberg is not. Say "Vuvuzela" round those parts and they assume it is the latest South American player to be linked with West Ham.

However, the World Cup is in South Africa and part of the experience is to embrace what is the culture - sporting and social - of that country. And part of that culture is the sound of the Vuvuzela - or o be more accurate, tens of thousands of them - at football matches. The fans have been doing it for years. It is part of the ritual.

Now a cluster of mainly Europeans have the audacity to complain about the din. Fans as well as players, by the way.

Apparently it affects the concentration and communication out of the field. Ready made excuse for Robert Green there.

And those same fans that are willing to explode into a stream of expletives at the slightest excuse back in Germany, Holland, England or wherever, they find the sound of an African musical instrument offensive. Try listening to some of the verbal bile that comes out of the stands in English football. Now that's offensive.

At best, the call for the vuvuzela ban is astonishing. At worst, disrespectful. The reason for affording Africa its first World Cup was to give the whole tournament a different ambience than it has enjoyed before.

That means embracing, not eliminating local customs. The clue that the din from the Vuvuzelas would be apparent this summer was there in the Confederations Cup a year ago. The backdrop sounded like the drone generated by a million bumble bees.

Their use is part of the fabric of South African football and every match in that competition. Any talk of banning them is outrageous and scandalous.

Many of those complaining are probably the same kind of tourist who goes to Spain and complains that the banks are only open from 8.30am to 1pm. Or that it is impossible to get a "proper cup of tea" along the promenade. Or that there is no where to get an all-day English breakfast. Or that the shops shut for three hours in the afternoon.

What next? They will be complaining that there are wild animals out in the veldt. Really? in Africa? What are the chances?

This World Cup was always intended to be new and novel. That was the whole point. So, please, hold off with the complaints about the noise from the Vuvuzela.

It sure beats the weekly anthem that greets the end of many football matches in England - that of police and ambulance sirens that are depressingly regular. It is South Africa - enjoy it and deal with it.

rhapsody · 发表于 2010-6-19 21:45

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport ... horn-of-plenty.html

The plastic World Cup trumpets are a noisy reminder of man's musical origins, says Jasper Rees.

By Jasper Rees
Published: 6:36AM BST 16 Jun 2010

To many people, the vuvuzela sounds like nothing they've heard before – a plasticated noise pollutant, whose drone blares incessantly out of half the TV screens on the planet. Though it comes in a variety of lengths and fierce colours, it produces only one incessant monotone. It has been the subject of a torrent of jokes, tweets and complaints. But it's actually making the oldest musical noise in the world.

The idea that what we're hearing from South Africa is a re-establishment of the natural order, a reconnection with musical pre-history, might seem implausible. But picture a moment in the Stone Age, possibly in the land now known as Iraq, where the first attempt at sheep husbandry was being mastered. Out with his flock one day, Neolithic Man noticed the horn of a dead ram on the ground. For some reason, the tip was broken, creating an aperture at the narrow end. Neolithic Man picked it up, blew into the narrow hole, and got the shock of his life.

This was man's first musical instrument – a blast of wind blown through a conical shape – and we've been using a version of it ever since. Indeed, if the vuvuzela is getting on your wick, imagine how the shofar, a tall, curlicued ram's horn, felt to the occupants of Jericho. The marauding Vikings held aloft terrifying horns called lurs, whose mouths were decorated to become the gaping jaws of dragons and wolves. Naked, hairy Celts petrified the Roman army by blowing furiously into snake-like bronze horns. Then the Romans learned how to smelt iron, and the vast cornu returned the compliment with interest.

For almost all of its history, the horn's function has remained the same: to make as loud a noise as possible, just like the one emerging from the football stadiums of South Africa. It was only in the past three centuries that it moved on from its primary role as a signalling instrument. Before Bach and Handel brought it indoors from the hunting fields of France, the horn's job was always to raise the alarm, to silence the crowd, to freeze the enemy. That's why it cuts through to your brain like no other instrument, whether in a Wagner opera, a police siren, or in the stands of Soccer City. However distorted, however synthetic, however amplified, it's the sound of nature.

It is particularly appropriate that the vuvuzela – with its similarity to the buzzing of a massive swarm of bees – has emerged on the terraces, because football fans have always felt the a need to make a loud noise, by whatever means to hand. The only other sound to rival it is the fan's other traditional form of self-expression: the chant. (Can we dismiss the historical anomaly of the rattle?) In fact, even though the vuvuzela has sent shockwaves around the world, the real surprise is that the instrumental has trumped the vocal in, of all places, South Africa. You'd expect a higher standard of musical ambition from a nation with a working-class choral tradition matched nowhere in the world but Wales.

Like its much-maligned predecessor, the wave, this particular crowd phenomenon apparently originated in Mexico. So, for one World Cup only, this wonderful Mexican soundwave will drown out the Brazilian samba rhythms, the African drums, the full-throated Dutch chanting, even that bloke who schlepps around the world to England matches, playing The Great Escape on his trumpet as he goes. As that old football chant has it, they're certainly not singing any more.

rhapsody · 发表于 2010-6-20 01:04

http://www.livescience.com/stran ... ynamics-100618.html

By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer

posted: 18 June 2010 04:19 pm ET

World Cup players might notice some strange things happening to their kicks because of the peculiar aerodynamics of playing soccer at the high altitude of the Johannesburg, South Africa, stadium, a NASA scientist warned today.

At altitude, the air pressure is lower, and so are aerodynamic effects such as drag and lift, ultimately causing balls to travel faster and straighter than they would at lower altitude. Johannesburg is 5,500 feet (1,680 meters) above sea level, even higher than Denver.

"When they play there, the ball will behave differently because of air density compared to other stadiums," said Rabi Mehta, an aerospace engineer at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "When watching the games recently, you often see long passes that overshoot, and I think that's because of this effect."

Physics on the field

Drag is the force of air resistance pushing against a ball's motion and slowing it down, while lift is a force causing a ball to swerve off a straight path. Both forces are caused by the presence of air, so with less air molecules around, these forces are reduced. Thus, the same kick in Johannesburg compared with one at sea level would cause a soccer ball to travel faster and on a less curved path.

Players who are aware of altitude's effect on aerodynamics could have an advantage over those who don't, Mehta said.

"If they understand what happens in certain situations, that improves their performance," Mehta told LiveScience. "When the person is producing a pass he has to realize, 'I need to kick it not as hard as I would at sea level, otherwise it's going to go out of bounds.'"

In addition, the altitude can be tough physiologically for players not used to it. Less atmosphere means less oxygen to breathe, which causes a strain on athletes as they must breathe harder to get enough oxygen to their straining muscles. People can adjust to altitude, and their bodies will begin producing more red blood cells to take advantage of the oxygen that is available. But this takes time, so players who live at high altitude or arrive early enough to acclimatize have a definite advantage.

Knuckle-balling

Mehta also did some research on the aerodynamics of the new soccer ball being used at the 2010 World Cup. For the competition Adidas introduced a new ball called Jabulani (Zulu for "celebration"). The new model is made out of eight panels, compared with the previous 14, and has special aerodynamic ridges on its surface.

The ball is an adjustment to a previous new ball called Teamgeist, introduced for the last World Cup in 2006. At the time, Adidas said it was the world's most accurate soccer ball, though players complained it didn't perform as they were used to.

Mehta said Jabulani will probably have some of the same quirks as Teamgeist.

A primary issue is what's called "knuckle-balling." A knuckle ball is a ball that swerves or veers in unexpected directions. This happens because the ball is kicked straight, without spin.

Ironically, that lack of spin on the ball causes its path to curve because of aerodynamics. The ball is not perfectly smooth because of the seams between its panels, and now because of the added ridges. These irregularities cause an asymmetric flow of air around the ball, creating side forces that push the ball into a swerve.

The new ridges and overall design make Jabulani even easier to knuckle-ball at the speeds commonly kicked at during free-kick around the goal area.

Knuckle-balling is not necessarily bad – sometimes it helps throw the goalie off if a ball swoops at the last minute. But players like being able to anticipate where their kick will land, and the new ball will take some adjustment, Mehta said.

Mehta shared some of these findings with a group of students who were invited to test out the new ball at an event held by NASA Ames's Fluid Mechanics Laboratory.

"It's amazing how kids get excited when you start talking about sports," Mehta said. "All these efforts are meant to get kids more interested in science and engineering."

rhapsody · 发表于 2010-7-4 23:37

The French soccer team's disaster in South Africa has exposed the superficiality of European racial integration -- and now only Germany can save France from tearing itself apart.
BY JOHN HOBERMAN | JULY 1, 2010

In August 1936, shortly after African-American track star Jesse Owens won a sensational four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games, the editor of France's leading sports magazine L'Auto called upon French colonial authorities to find and recruit athletically talented black Africans who would be able to "represent the French race in a dignified manner" at international competitions. French runners and throwers had cut a poor figure in Berlin, and their failures before the eyes of the world were regarded as a national humiliation for France.

Accordingly, on Dec. 3, 1937, a search party sponsored by the magazine sailed from Bordeaux on a mission to study the athletic potential of the inhabitants of French West Africa. These sports missionaries eventually arrived in Senegal and were received by the highest colonial officials.

The result of this talent search was the sobering discovery that the explorers had completely misunderstood the relationship between sport and their colonial subjects. The Africans, unlike their African-American counterparts, showed little aptitude for sport. On the contrary, these impoverished and undernourished people needed sport as a therapy to restore their health. The search for children who might be future athletes was abandoned.

Half a century later, racial sensibilities have evolved, but European agents and coaches are still on the lookout for black talent to make them rich. And as the majority-African roster that France fielded at this year's World Cup attests, many have succeeded. But after a lackluster performance that saw the French squad sent home after the first round amid a swirl of scandals and accusations, the complicated relationship between race and sports has re-emerged in the public discourse in a very ugly way.

The recent uproar began after the entire French team refused to attend a training session following the expulsion of a teammate. The player in question, Nicolas Anelka, had shouted obscenities at the coach, Raymond Domenech, during the halftime of France's 0-2 pasting by Mexico on June 17. When the French media began calling this action a "strike" and a "mutiny," the escalation of the incident into a crisis took on a political dimension that is best explained as post-colonial drama, as indispensable black talent confronted the white authority figure whose job it was to keep them under control.

The denigration of France's North and sub-Saharan African athletes has been a favorite theme of the French extreme right for years. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic founder of the racist Front National, declared in 1996 that the French national soccer team was unacceptable on patriotic grounds because of the number of "foreigners" -- i.e., nonwhite citizens -- who had been selected to represent France. Some players' refusal to sing the national anthem became a sore point that persists to this day.

But after the mostly black French soccer team's defiance of its white leaders in South Africa, Le Pen's racist critique of multiracial sport has entered the French political mainstream with a vengeance. It was the French minister of health and sports, Roselyne Bachelot -- hardly a fringe figure -- who recently called the older players "gang leaders" who were tyrannizing "frightened boys" on the national squad. During the 1990s, it was only the French extreme right that ridiculed the idea that multiracial sport could facilitate racial integration in France. Now the derision directed against the indiscipline of a "black" team and the implicit failure of sport's integrative role in French society rains down from across the political spectrum.

Never mind that Domenech is universally thought of as an incompetent clown. The scandal's psychopolitical shock produced an extraordinary and almost unanimous chorus of criticism and abuse from the entire French political class. "Is this going to tarnish the image of France?" asked Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "How are young people going to respect their professors when they see Anelka insulting his trainer?" asked Minister for Higher Education Valérie Pécresse.

The reactions in the French media have been even worse, combining colonial paternalism and angry condemnation. The players have been vilified as "gangsters," "scum," "hooligans," and "little shitheads from the projects." President Nicolas Sarkozy has framed the breakdown of team discipline as a national crisis and called for a board of inquiry. When star player Thierry Henry returned to France following the team's meltdown in South Africa, Sarkozy postponed a preparatory meeting for the G-20 summit in Toronto to grant Henry an hour of his time at the Élysée.

Sarkozy's opponents have turned the scandal back on him, blaming the team's performance on his alleged Americanization of French society. "The French team," left-wing National Assembly Minister Jérôme Cahuzac, declared, "has been taken over by an ethos Sarkozy has promoted: individualism, egotism, everyone for himself, and the only way to measure people's success is the check that comes at the end of the month." It was a short step from capitalist egocentricity to the vulgar "bling-bling" of the immigrant ghettos that had now contaminated the French national team. Former prime minister and Sarkozy rival Dominique de Villepin put it most clearly, saying: "I do not want France to resemble our football team."

That the French national team has become a symbol of society's divisions is particularly unfortunate, given that in 1998, France's World Cup winning side was eulogized as the fulfillment of the official French policy of racial and ethnic integration. Zinedine Zidane, its outstanding player and the son of Algerian parents, played star roles both as an athlete and as a model citizen who seemed to incarnate the success of the French model of ethnic integration. This doctrine discourages multiculturalism in favor of the doctrine that skin color and ethnicity have nothing to do with being a French citizen. Paradoxical as it may seem, the triumph of these "black-blanc-beur" -- black, white, and North African athletes -- was hailed as a sign that French society was immune to multicultural divisions. The resulting national euphoria was embraced as a welcome respite from the country's persisting anxieties about the social and cultural consequences of large-scale immigration and the spread of Muslim populations throughout Western Europe.

The current World Cup debacle has undone the utopian fantasies of 1998 in a spectacular fashion. For Sarkozy, the unseemly behavior of these racially marginal Frenchmen must have brought back traumatic memories of the tremendously destructive and protracted rioting by North African immigrant youths in the desolate housing projects north of Paris in the fall of 2005. As interior minister at that time, Sarkozy attempted to enforce a zero-tolerance policy against the bands of adolescent vandals he famously denounced as "scum." But law and order was not the only casualty of this ethnic violence. Along with the thousands of cars that were put to the torch, the image of France itself was under assault. "The republican integration model, on which France has for decades based its self-perception, is in flames," the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung declared at the time.

France's current soccer scandal has also prompted demoralizing comparisons to other institutional failures that one professor, François Galichet, has described as forms of "social illiteracy." Any administrative shabbiness that reeked of flagrant oversights -- the Sarkozy government's lax attitude toward conflicts of interest, the Société Générale banking scandal, and the railroading of a controversial pensions policy -- has be equated with the accumulated failures that ended in disgrace at the World Cup. Not surprisingly, retrospective analyses of the World Cup preparations found egregious oversights and shortcuts to complain about. Many citizens were ambivalent about the team being in the World Cup at all because everyone knew it had advanced to South Africa on a clear violation of the rules -- a last-gasp handball by Henry that led to the winning goal in a qualifying game against Ireland. That the guardians of French soccer allowed this unfair advantage to advance their cause reminded some French of what Galichet called "the extraordinary and abysmal failure of the French elites to administer any sort of collective enterprise." Consequently, the failure of France's "black" team has made the success of multiracial integration seem superficial.

The huge media resonance of this French scandal also points to its symbolic significance for Western Europe as a whole. Indeed, the ubiquity and severity of ethnic and religious tensions in the European Union's prosperous welfare states have become an integral part of the European condition. Ironically, while it was the performance of an African-American sprinter at 1936's Nazi games that inspired France's first push for athletic multiculturalism, the country that best exemplifies it today may that year's Olympic host: Germany. Never before have so many members of the German national soccer team been of foreign derivation -- from immigrant families, from families with one German parent, or sons of once-exiled Germans from Eastern Europe. Like its European neighbors, Germany is under intense pressure to integrate its immigrants, and its Turkish and Muslim immigrants in particular, into the social fabric. Although the skinhead killings of dark-skinned foreigners are now past, controversies over unemployment, multilingual schools, the construction of mosques, and low social mobility still simmer.

Germans have shown a lot of public interest in the ethnicity of their World Cup representatives, but this curiosity is still under control. Germany's postwar inhibitions about racial chauvinism rule out official abuse, à la française. But the head of the German soccer federation has pleaded with German politicians to somehow transform the multiethnic harmony of the German national team into the social peace Germany needs as much as the rest of Europe does.

Of course, one reason why Germany's team seems to be taking the edge off xenophobia while France's squad is reinforcing it is that the Germans are winning. But as France has learned over the last decade, the national euphoria of a World Cup victory is only short-term relief. Bringing home the golden trophy is hardly easy, but compared with reconciling Europe's racial tensions, it's child's play.

rhapsody · 发表于 2010-7-8 01:36

http://www.infrastructurist.com/ ... percharge-a-nation/

Posted on Monday June 7th by The Infrastructurist

The world (well, nearly every part of the world save the U.S.) is gearing up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This year’s host, South Africa, has the honor of being the first African nation to hold the tournament. And it is not taking the responsibility lightly — which is wise, since hosting the world’s largest sporting event (it’s arguably larger than the Olympics) has the capacity to elevate a nation on multiple levels, from increased tourism to job creation to international prestige.

As such, South Africa has wasted no time beefing up its infrastructure to accommodate the estimated 350,000 international visitors, not to mention several thousand media members and several billion TV viewers, that will be attending and/or watching the games. Following the 2006 World Cup in Germany, many whispered that hosting the 2010 Cup would cost South African $821 million, 25% more than the 2006 hosts spent. To date, the South African government has spent $660 million building and renovating 10 separate stadiums, plus $680 million on airport upgrades and $460 million on road and rail improvements (including the high-speed rail network from Johannesburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg International Airport). In addition, 30 additional hotels have been built in Johannesburg alone. Officials in Cape Town built a new electrical substation to ensure that the city’s stadium and surrounding areas would receive sufficient power.

Granted, the incentives for spending this much are considerable: The World Cup will likely pump around $2 billion into South Africa’s economy, generating just under $1 billion in directing spending and creating an estimated 159,000 new jobs. The tournament also attracts plenty of international investors, whose influx of cash could benefit the country for years to come.

rhapsody · 发表于 2010-7-8 01:59

http://www.infrastructurist.com/ ... e-world-cup-stadia/

Posted on Thursday July 1st by The Infrastructurist

The U.K. blog Building Design asked a couple South African architects what they thought of the slew of stadia constructed for the event. Here’s a roundup of what they had to say:

Andre Rademeyer, ST&AR Architects:

I’ve yet to experience the Cape Town stadium in the flesh…but certainly from a broadcast audience perspective, the Soccer City stadium seems to have more spatial presence. It’s a small pity that South African architects weren’t engaged to design the main new stadia [they were designed by a German firm]. However the upside is that the level of global expertise imported means that we are beneficiaries of some phenomenal structures and the partnerships with local architectural firms and construction companies has given plenty of opportunity for them to demonstrate high levels of competency.

Sean Skelton, SMS Architecture:

The excitement of the event has gripped the country in its entirety, despite all the negativity and pessimism that led up to the opening event….I think that my favorite [new structure] has got to be the “Melting Pot” revamp in Soccer City, Soweto, designed by Boogertman and Partners. It has grown on me as I’ve watched its construction, and has a vibrancy that the other stadiums do not have. It also feels the most appropriate to its setting and has the potential to impact socio-economically to its surroundings.

I love the Durban stadium with its huge “trajectory” arches that support the roof on delicate tension cables and the Greenpoint stadium in Cape Town with its swooping lines and delicately clad high tech membrane, but lets face it, one could have switched the locations and no one would have been the wiser. The Nelson Mandela Bay stadium is also a beautifully designed and constructed building, located in a great setting, with huge potential.

If I had any criticism of these three stadiums it would be that the influence of GMP architects is clearly visible in them all. They are still a major asset to each of their individual cities, providing landmark structures which in turn provide a certain identity, but I think they lack the spirit that the Melting Pot seems to have.

rhapsody · 发表于 2010-7-14 01:10

http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/20 ... out-world-cup-ball/

Dear Mr Blatter,

If a sponsor came into your office before the World Cup and said. “ We are going to give you a new, perfectly round match ball…the players wont like it at all…and there will be more mistakes made than in any other World Cup…”

“ There will be less goals scored…less free kicks scored...less passes complete…less control by players….and roughly 70% of crosses and shots on goal will miss wide and go way over the crossbar…”

What would you say to them..?

My name is Craig Johnston. I am risking my reputation and goodwill within certain football circles by writing this open letter to yourself and anybody else who is interested in the Jabulani ball issue and why its endorsement by FIFA could ruin the game as we now know it.

I am however not only writing with the problem, but also an easy solution to the problem…

I am a former football player with Liverpool Football Club in England, and I am also known for inventing the adidas Predator football boot, the adidas Traxion sole system…and the research and testing done on previous World cup footballs.

I am a big supporter of the FIFA Goal initiatives, and we have met many times over the years, on various football issues. I have also presented to you, the executive committee and the FIFA Technical team many innovations in football and specifically youth development over the years.

I am therefore writing to you as a friend of football, a friend of FIFA. I am also writing to you as someone who actually knows what they are talking about when it comes to World Cup footballs and their flight characteristics.

A lot of things have been said and written about the new Jabulani Ball…but the word disaster is on a lot of players and managers lips...

Pazzini -Italy

“ The Balls are a disaster, both for goalkeepers and for attackers.”

David James-England

" Dreadful and Horrible..."

Fabio Capello-Manager England

" The worst Ball I have ever seen."

It is very alarming that the best players and teams in the world are struggling to control this ball to their own satisfaction.

What is even more alarming than the players’ assessment of the ‘bad ball’, however, are the statistics of  ‘ bad play’.

What this means to the quality of this tournament

in South Africa is quite shocking.

The statistics are showing that is the worst passing, shooting and controlling of the ball of any World Cup in history of the competition.That cannot be ignored…and it cannot be fixed up later..as we are being told..

The problems with this ball will not go away and they need to be understood by the FIFA Technical department and addressed immediately…before there are any more on field disasters.

I know you and FIFA are under pressure at the moment. The issues such as Goal Line Technology and poor refereeing decisions are not as important compared to the Jabulani Ball issue and the poor quality of play that it is causing.

There was a furious global public reaction to Frank Lampard’s goal against Germany that was denied by the officials…

By my calculations we have been denied at least 10 more goals that were not scored in this World Cup so far, because of the erratic and unstable flight of the Jabulani football..but nobody is jumping up and down…yet…!

Who is taking responsibility for denying us these goals and bits of magic..

To make a get a goalmouth call wrong and make a mistake happens once or twice a year.

To get the actual football itself wrong, affects every single touch, pass or shot that a player makes, in every single game.

And there are an awful lot of mistakes happening at this showcase tournament.

Daniel Agger-Denmark- Dead Ball expert

"It makes world Class players look like drunken sailors"

The erratic behavior of this ball is ruining the flow of the game and downgrading the quality of play.

This is an absolute disaster for the purists…and it cannot continue in this manner.

Just listen to the players ….just look at the statistics…they are very very damning of this ball.

Robhinho-Brazil

“ The guy who designed this never played Football.”

The fact is that the Jabulani ball with its new materials and new construction methods simply does not behave in the same predictable aerodynamic manner as the old ball we have all been using perfectly well for 40 years previously...

The players are all saying that the Jubalani has a mind of its own...

I have a trained eye and have been watching these things for years. If you watch carefully, and know what you’re looking for, you can see it move erratically, even on television...I have seen hundreds of basic trajectory miscalculations so far in this World Cup where the ball usually ends up going out of play…

Surprisingly, nobody has made a big deal out of it yet…but football people who really watch for the art and craft are starting to notice…like the players…like the managers…like the purists…like the statisticians…its all starting to add up.

I have outlined the more scientific reasons for the balls unpredictable behavior in a separate section below…please read it and you will understand the problem immediately….then count the on-field mistakes…

In short, the new ball does not translate a lot of the backspin, topspin or sidespin…all of the special language that a player normally applies to a ball to make it behave properly in the air.

Why is this so important…?

This language is the real art and craft of the footballer and of the game..

This is what we really pay all of our money to see.

This is what makes these guys so different from us…this special language is the genius..Asking players to Shoot or pass with this new Jabulani ball is like asking Picasso to paint a picture without bristles on his brush…to paint without the usual texture and without all of the feeling…

I have spent 3 weeks in South Africa at the World Cup and I have seen the Jabulani ball move more than 2 feet in the air in some instances when it is not supposed to move in the air. I have also seen the ball go absolutely straight at other times when clearly the player has tried to put a bend on it of 2 feet or more.

Luis Fabiano-Brazil

" All of a sudden it changes trajectory on you...I think it is Supernatural.."

Unfortunately the ball is also very nervous and jumpy to the touch when controlling it close to the body and when dribbling it.

Julio Cesar- Goalkeeper Brazil

" A Ball you would buy in a Supermarket..."

So the ball is a disaster… and because of it there have been many mistakes...more than any World Cup ever…I really believe that FIFA cannot continue to endorse this ball…

Why...?

Because by endorsing this ball, FIFA are endorsing every mistake that that has been made by the players using it during this World Cup...

By endorsing this ball, FIFA are endorsing the removal of the players’ art and craft at the very top end.

The most frightening thing however is that by endorsing this ball, FIFA are allowing a sponsor to alter the very dynamics of how the game is played… and for the worse. Not just in this competition, but going forward…into schools and youth leagues the world over..

Players are very clever and are adapting already technically and tactically to the balls idiosyncrasies…

The German team knew exactly what they were doing when their goalkeeper kicked the ball deep into the edge of the England Penalty box, up and over the English defense for an unchallenged 1st goal. No other ball could ever have traveled that far…

That is also called Route One Football and soon everyone will be doing it because the ball is encouraging it…

To change the dynamics and the craft of the game like this is not a call that a vested interest sponsor should be allowed to make…they have got it horribly wrong already…Mr Blatter, I know you are horrified about the poor play because I know you are a football man. We have heard the excuses from FIFA but who is really making these critical footballing decisions about the players craft..?

The governing body of a sport needs to be independent from the sponsors products. FIFA should have been far more diligent in their own tests….and should have binned the Jabulani ball before the competition..

This is what a very respected goalkeeper said a week before the competition started.

Tim Howard-USA Goalkeeper

"It's tragic that you’re going to see good players look foolish. Defenders are having a tough time judging it, strikers are having a tough time judging crosses as well and for goalkeepers it's murder so what can we do?''

"I think you're going to see some really weird and unfortunate goals.''

From day one I have been saying that there is a simple solution and back up plan for this World Cup. You can easily apply exactly the same Jubalani ball graphics onto the traditional construction of your sponsor’s previous Buckminster construction World Cup balls.

Two of the best footballs ever made were made by your sponsors...The Fevernova and the Tricolor Ball from the Asian World Cup and French World Cup’s respectively…

The normal Buckminster construction has given us every glorious moment of football we can ever recall...

As players and as fans…it set the standard for the very craft and soul of the game…it has proven reliable, predictable…dependable…

This new Jabulani ball is unnatural, unpredictable, unreliable ... and it is totally unacceptable how this ball has been endorsed by FIFA for this tournament and going forward..

The sponsors and FIFA marketing seem to be the tail that has been wagging the FIFA dog…and so far they have got away with it…

The only people that can make the call to radically change the dynamics of the ball and therefore the game itself…. are the players….

And no….not the players that are already being paid by the sponsors…!

For me, probably the post prophetically damning statement about the Jabulani ball comes from the English midfielder Joe Cole..

‘’ It took a bit of skill out of the game…but It's the same for everybody.”

Wow…what an unbelievably sad statement…

I am not employed by anyone...and I am not looking for a job…I also know I won't make any new friends at FIFA, in-fact, I will probably be blacklisted, but it’s a price I am willing to pay.

I owe it to the game to speak up...so does anyone that believes in skill and craft as the ultimate attributes for a footballer…

Mr Blatter, and FIFA…this has been a fabulous World Cup in many many ways, and you all need to be congratulated.

I am sure that the ball designers, manufacturers, sponsors and testers of the Jabulani ball will not have been as honest and straight with you as I have in this letter….and that is the big problem..

But why would they…?

They are making hundreds of millions of dollars already out of this perfectly round football..

So, having had the benefit of understanding the problem, I will ask you the simple question one more time
If a sponsor came into your office before the World Cup and said… “ We are going to give you a new, perfectly round match ball…the players wont like it at all….and there will be more mistakes made than in any other World Cup…”

“ There will be less goals scored…less free kicks scored.....less passes complete….less control by players….and roughly 70% of crosses and shots on goal will miss wide and over the crossbar…

What would you say to them..?

Craig Johnston

Ex Footballer with Middlesborough FC and Liverpool FC England.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Technical Observations of the Jabulani Football… Craig Johnston …South Africa June 2010…

Unfortunately, the players do not know WHY or WHAT is causing the Jubilani ball to behave., so erratically,

I do have some knowledge of the reasons, and that is why I am writing to you now to explain why this new ball is behaving in the manner that it is.

First of all….How do I know all of this information.....?

I know it because I personally designed, built and set up the original testing Lab for adidas In Herzogenaurach Germany in the early 90’s...

In my role as lead innovation consultant I created the Predator football boot, The Traxion sole system...and tested the original prototypes of a ball that would fly further …the Questra World Cup Ball for USA 1994...

It was also at this Lab that I pioneered the use of super slow motion footage with Oxford scientific Films and digital techniques with the Frauenhoffer Institute.

This was specifically to study and understand the moment of contact between boot and ball and the following aerodynamic characteristics of the football in flight…

Although this was conducted with scientifically controlled parameters ... I did it with a footballers touch and sensitivity always in mind...and a solid vision and feel for the end result...

First of all however, just a bit of background is required to put the balls behavior into a more scientific context...

Each kick of a ball can be quantified as a mathematical equation ...and some of the forces important to this equation include but are not limited to velocity, trajectory, lift, drag, external and internal air pressure and of course gravity...

You and I, and Pele and Franz Beckenbauer , and every other footballer on the planet grew up kicking a 32 panel Buckmister construction hand stitched football....It had 20 hexagon panels and 12 pentagons (small black ones).

The design and shape of this Buckminster ball that we all know so well, is not spherical, but is called a Truncated Icosahedron. It is not rounded until it is blown up with air and forced, with a butyl bladder...into a ball shape.

This football with its 180 panel edges, exposed to the elements, is far from round and far from perfect.... ...and these very imperfections are what gives it it's unique repeatable feel to the footballer. These imperfections help produce an optimum flight trajectory that players have been able to depend upon, every single time they kicked or received a ball...before even the World Cup Telstar ball in Mexico back in 1970.

This ball has a soul…it is predictable… reliable… beautiful....

Technically speaking, the construction of this normal ball, with its exposed panel edges and stitch lines, give it high lift and drag co-efficients which in turn, encourage a high rotation rate around the balls axis...

It is this rotation, when propelled forward which help create the drag and lift properties which magically seem to hold the ball up in the air.

This is called the Magnus effect…and it impacts the many types of technical kicks in many different ways

The long Pass

The Magnus effect happens at a optimal velocity when the airflow around and perpendicular to, the balls rotational axis, become a different pressure, and the ball starts to deviate substantially in the air...

This is usually when a ball has decelerated and is closer to the target.

This is what we call swerve or curl...where the ball literally bends it's flight path in the direction of the spin that has been imparted...

We have all kicked a ball into a strong headwind and witnessed the huge and dramatic swerve effect that extra lift and drag have on a normal football...or cricket ball..or golf ball…

This phenomenon, is what allows a player to shape and curl each pass or shot on goal with backspin, topspin, sidespin or a combination of those attributes....

This is what you and I and every other footballer grew up with...and this, is the ultimate craft of a footballer...

Unfortunately the designers of the Jabulani have totally misunderstood the importance of this as their ball doesn't behave in the same way…

It has an artificial feel and trajectory and only about 20% of the craft a player is putting on the ball is being translated.

This equates to about 70% or more of crosses and dead ball free kicks being overhit…

The passing in this World Cup has been the worst ever.

Unfortunately the problems with the ball do not stop only with the craft of passing of the ball...

Straight Shooting With Power

It is a little known fact but once a ball has been kicked it is always decelerating…

With a hard straight shot towards goal, that is, without spin, the drag and lift on a normally constructed ball is roughly equal on both sides….

The balls forward movements are therefore stabilised, predictable and repeatable... that's why golf balls have dimples...

On the Jabulani ball the flight path is unstable, erratic and unpredictable...

This World Cup has seen the worst long range shooting ever...

Shooting with Accuracy

On a hard shot for goal, drag on the ball is really important to keeping it stable, to keep it flyng straight and steady..

With this technique, the ultimate objective of a players strike is to get the centre of percussion (sweet spot) of his kicking foot, through the centre of the ball..

With traditional footballs, the kicking foot sinks deep into the panels and deforms the ball substantially, therefore the foot is in contact with the balls surface for longer.

This extra time, even if it is measured in milliseconds, allows a player to be far more accurate with his strike...

It is also the extra time that allows the secondary movement of the foot to put the spin or movement of the ball that the player wants to shape the shot…as in passing above…

With the Jabulani,  the ball seems to jump nervously off the foot before the required deformation and therefore before enough purchase has been achieved by the kicker...which has ended in the disastrous number of strikes over the crossbar or completely missing the target on either side of the goal...

This lack of purchase issue, combined with the unstable flight path, can also account for the many mistimed headers and volleys in the competition so far...

The accuracy of shooting and heading is the worst of any World Cup...ever

Goalkeepers and Attackers Receiving the Ball

It is not only the goalkeepers who have been complaining about unstable and erratic movements of the ball.

Many attackers have complained about the ball moving at the last second as they attempt to head or volley the ball from crosses or set piece plays...

Refereeing Errors

I believe that the erratic and unpredictable flight paths of the Jubilani balls are the cause of many strange refereeing errors and have also contributed to controversial goals and penalty decisions…

The pace of game itself has become faster and more frantic, at this World Cup, specifically because the Jabulani ball is hyper sensitive to the touch. It is nervous and flighty to control, and to the players feet it has an artificial and jumpy feel.

The players are all making simple mistakes…and the referees simply can’t keep up with play..

Craig Johnston July 2010

等э鴏ㄝ · 发表于 2010-7-14 20:21

WORLD CUP 2010: Brutal, beaten and bleating... Holland display a lack of class as they blame everyone else for loss

By Matt Lawton reports from Johannesburg Last updated at 9:20 AM on 13th July 2010

Crunch: Nigel de Jong brutally kicks Xabi Alonso in Sunday's final

By the time Holland's players had made their way through the interview area and left the magnificent Soccer City Stadium, there was little left to admire.

A side that had betrayed their own football culture with an approach built on brutality and intimidation against a marvelous Spanish team then chose to blame everyone but themselves for their defeat in Sunday's World Cup final. A lack of class off the pitch as well as on it, rather disappointingly.

Much of their anger was targeted towards Howard Webb, the referee who actually did them a huge favour by failing to dismiss Nigel de Jong in the 28th minute for that quite astonishing challenge on Xabi Alonso.
At a press conference here in Johannesburg yesterday Sepp Blatter expressed his support for Webb, recognising how difficult the players had made it for the referee. But the Dutch moaned incessantly about the Englishman's performance.

'If you play a World Cup final, you need a world-class referee,' said Arjen Robben. 'I don't know whether today was a world-class performance from the referee.'
Robben did have a legitimate complaint when it came to the failure of the officials to punish Carles Puyol for pulling him back as he accelerated towards goal. But it was his failure to take any responsibility for the manner in which his side went about trying to beat Spain that was so disappointing.
'He has to send him off,' said Robben. 'He has to give a free-kick. In the end there is no advantage. The first one-on-one is my mistake. I have to score that one. But that is football. You try your best. I tried to score. After such a game, when you sit in the dressing room, and you are only talking about the referee and his very bad points, that says it all.

Clogged: Holland midfielder Mark van Bommel fouls Andres Iniesta

'The main thing is we cannot criticise ourselves. Remember we played Spain. They are a terrific side. We had our plan and we tried to play our football. We tried to stop them defensively. Our organisation was good. We created chances. But in the end it is a World Cup final. Two aggressive teams who want to win. It is for the referee to control the game.'
Wesley Sneijder echoed the sentiment. 'He has robbed us,' said Sneijder, who was aggrieved by Webb's failure to award Holland a corner shortly before Andres Iniesta scored his extra-time goal.
'This is a disgrace to football. It shouldn't have happened. 'First I shot a free-kick that hit the wall and then the Spanish keeper touched it before going behind. What does the referee do? The whistle was not for a corner but a goal-kick.
'In the following attack, Iniesta is at first offside. Webb doesn't whistle and then Iniesta gets the ball and scores.

Ouch: Robin van Persie slides in on and fouls Spain defender Joan Capdevila

'And earlier there was a moment with Iniesta. He kicked Mark van Bommel when the ball was not there. The fourth official saw the moment and he said, "Yeah, I saw it". I think if you saw it it's a red card. That's three incidents in a short space of time. It is a scandal it has to end this way.'

More of the same came from Robin Van Persie. 'What was this man doing?' asked the Arsenal striker of a referee he will encounter next season.
'He made three big errors in extra-time of a World Cup final. This really hurts. He whistled four minutes from time, but not for a corner, and later overlooks Iniesta being in an off-side position. Iniesta should not have been on the pitch because he kicked Van Bommel. He also should have shown Puyol a second yellow card for trying to knock down Robben.'

Dirk Kuyt dared suggest there was little wrong with Holland's spoiling tactics. 'We are playing in the World Cup final and we want to win it,' he said. 'You try everything because you know what is at stake. I think we had maybe two or three bad tackles and far more yellow cards than we deserved.'

Fall guy: Spain's Pedro tumbles after a tackle from Giovanni van Bronckhorst

For a start, the Dutch need to study the laws of the game because Iniesta's goal should not have been disallowed for being offside. Not when the initial ball from Fernando Torres failed to reach the brilliant Spaniard, who was then onside when Cesc Fabregas found him with a delightful ball.

They should also consider the future of their press officer, who disgraced himself with a ludicrous attack on the English media in response to a perfectly valid question to Sneijder.

Impossible job: Referee Howard Webb has been blamed by many Holland players, including Arjen Robben (left) for their defeat

Having first acknowledged what a wonderful season Sneijder had enjoyed, not only in winning a European and domestic treble with Inter Milan but scoring five goals en route to the World Cup final, he was then asked to respond to the accusation that Holland's football against Spain had been depressingly negative.

Sneijder was not the least bit offended and had started to answer the question when Kees Jansma, who seems to think he's the star of the show given his performances here in South Africa, foolishly chose to intervene.

'What was the result of England?' said Jansma, who has his own TV chat shot that features him interviewing Holland's footballers. 'Did they play in this World Cup?'

Having interrupted the interview with Sneijder, he was met with one or two objections. Not least for asking such an idiotic question.

'You can't talk to me like that,' he said. 'I am the boss! (which of course he isn't)

'That's the problem with England. No quality at all. It's why England has so many friends in football. And the quality of the English football is great, yes. Yes that's what I want to see. Football the way England play.'
'Is that on the record?' he was asked. 'Yes, it's on the record,' he replied.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2010/article-1294139/WORLD-CUP-2010-Brutal-beaten-bleating--Holland-display-lack-class-blame-loss.html#ixzz0tetDLHBc

等э鴏ㄝ · 发表于 2010-7-14 20:33

回复 7# rhapsody

这楼试下......

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